And that's Talossan Tradition. The TNC is all in favour of Talossan tradition, right?

Generally I think provincial assignments are quite arbitrary, so I was only really concerned with two issues: (a) fixing the Mexico loophole; (b) rebalancing in favour of Vuode which is becoming a "ghost province". I can see you fixed the first one; as for the second one, I'll defer to Vuodeans themselves. However, it looks like the overseas catchment area for Vuode is North-West Africa, which I wouldn't have considered a growth area...

My suggestion is simply not to adopt XPB's suggestion. It would stretch the principle of Provincial Assignment beyond recognition. Status quo, please. Sorry, I appear to have replied to a disappearing post?

Probably the same as mine. People to Provinces should mean just that. We stand by the principle of geographical assignment, otherwise the Provinces will cease to be provinces, they will become "self-sorting clubs" as people tweak the rules to end up in provinces with their friends. Fine, but let's abolish the Senäts if we do that.

Disbursement notices = useless bureaucracy and form-ticking which the last 3 Cabinets got along perfectly well without. The problem with Talossa for years has been too much paperwork and form-filling required to administer the State, and the TNC's response is... more paperwork and form-filling! So no-one but really enthusiastic amateur bureaucrats will ever want to stand for office again.

Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on March 16, 2023, 08:52:33 PM

Quote from: Marcel Eðo Pairescu Tafial, UrGP on March 16, 2023, 08:18:32 PMThe last merger attempt I remember was the Florenciă-Fiovă thing. Very much a "provinces figuring out mergers among themselves" situation that predictably went nowhere.

It went almost up to the end, with amended constitutions and provincial referenda!  But it became a partisan fight, with the perception that people with larger agendas were just using the merger as a tool to achieve a larger goal nationally.  I think that will probably tend to happen with a national-scale effort.

Let's not be euphemistic. What happened was that the King and the conservative majority in Florencia were convinced it was a scam by the Talossan Left to "steal" the reliably conservative Florencian Senäts seat - no matter that it would have meant giving up the impregnably leftist Fiovan Senäts seat at the same time, forming a new "swing" seat.

On the other hand, let's face it, the F-F merger was opportunist, in that Fiova was up for a merger, and the then-Governor of Florencia put his hand up to be a partner. A lot of people pointed out that merging non-contiguous provinces wasn't sensible, and in hindsight they were correct. Fiova has since then tried to offer a merger to Maricopa and got shot down flat. No-one (apart from Fiova?) wants to "properly" merge in the sense of giving up a Senäts seat, is the moral of the story - and therefore, provincial mergers won't happen outside Senäts reform.

Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on March 16, 2023, 07:52:51 PMThe budget acts have obliged each preceding government to do so.

Oh, that! Yeah, there was a discussion about it in the previous Cabinet, and we worked out that it was something that Senator Plätschisch introduced in the 50th Cosa budget, and subsequent budgets from future MinFins just kept copy-pasting the text, without noticing that it actually obliged us to do something about it. I never actually noticed it (or was reminded about it) as minFin, and obviously, I forgot all about it again since then! So, up to you whether the new Government considers it something worth actually doing. It's not obliged by El Lex or the OrgLaw.

Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on March 14, 2023, 07:18:20 PMI've been also trying to find notices of expenditures by past governments, which are required by law to be published before money is disbursed.

Which part of the law?

As to the financial reports, under El Lex C.1.5.6 you can ask the Burgermeister to provide you a Financial Report at any time. The previous Government should probably have done that at the time that the accounts finally got into Txec's hands, considering after the 54th Cosa the previous Burgermeister could simply not produce reports for us, due to his ill health. We were perhaps too trusting, and the Opposition of the time didn't remind us either. Well, never mind, I'm looking forward to the new Burgermeister's report in the upcoming Budget.

Quote from: Marcel Eðo Pairescu Tafial, UrGP on March 16, 2023, 06:52:53 PMa national Merger Convention

THANKS FOR THE IDEA!

Actually, 10 years would just about do it. 10 years from now would be just after Reunision which would be the dim and distant past.

Estimat Túischac'h, in light of both MinSTUFF's answer and MinImmigration's interjection, I would like to post a further supplementary question, if I may.

Does the Government see the function of the national social media to advertise the Kingdom to prospective citizens; or to keep current citizens informed? And if the answer is "both", does the Government not see a possible contradiction, in that the currently borderline-spam situation might work to attract interest, but just bore and annoy existing citizens?

There is a glaring loophole in this, as any Cabinet who wanted to preserve their privacy would simply not use State-owner fora.

There is a bigger question, which relates to political sensitivity. In other countries, Cabinet papers are released at a longer time frame so they can no longer be put to political use. Five years is not long enough to render documents of historical rather than political interest. If enacted, this would end up looking like the current US House of Representatives going on a rampage about the previous majority's "weaponisation".

I am very happy to see the new Government reviving an old initiative I was proud of. Although the issue back then was that only one person even applied for a grant, and then returned it without ever using it - I think they were trying to make some kind of political point I could never understand.

Estimat Túischac'h, I rise yet again to present a Terpelaziun to the Minister of Culture, as permitted by El Lexhatx H.2. I apologise once again for seeming to "pick on" the Minister; it is a coincidence that the issues I am noticing are in his portfolio areas.

My question concerns the Symbols of the Ziu Act, currently on the Clark as RZ4. Did the Minister, or Cabinet, receive any feedback from the Royal College of Arms on this bill?

Thank you for this reply - it seems incomplete, but probably as time goes on and the Server Crisis passes behind me, we can revisit these questions. I would only advise the Minister that all Ministers of the Crown are responsible to the Ziu, and are therefore liable to be called to the Ziu to account for their portfolios.